The present disclosure relates to devices and methods for preventing or reducing instances of shoulder surfing while using a mobile device in a public place.
With the widespread popularity of mobile devices, a user is often using the mobile device in a public place, a crowded place, or a place the user does not trust. This puts the user at risk of a person in the surrounding area observing the user entering sensitive information into the mobile device. Shoulder surfing is an example of this risk and is a common direct observation technique where a person looks over someone's shoulder to get information. Shoulder surfing is commonly used to obtain passwords, PINs, security codes, or other similar sensitive data. For example, if the user wants to unlock their smartphone by entering a four-digit pin, a person in the surrounding area could observe how the user enters the pin. The observing person could then steal the user's mobile device and be able to unlock the device based on how the person observed the user entering the pin.